The second annual Flavor Napa Valley food festival kicked off last night, and will continue through the weekend.

Last night’s kickoff event took place at Copia and featured just about every chef with a restaurant in downtown Napa. There was a jazz band echoing through the Copia halls, along with the squeals of fans circling around Iron Chef Morimoto. Some candids and pretty food photos from the evening’s festivities are in the gallery above.

With all the Napa chefs in one place, both the new generation and the old guard, it was a representation of the growth of the downtown dining scene. However, given all the new places, this was the question that was posed to the chefs last night: What type of restaurant is still needed in downtown Napa?

Napa is a notoriously fickle town when it comes to restaurants. You need the local support during the tourist offseason (which is now); several quote-unquote outside-the-box restaurants — from Ubuntu to Neela’s — have closed in recent years. (Michael Gyetvan of Norman Rose Tavern smartly pointed out that my open-ended question had some different levels: Is it from a business point of view? A personal dining one? For tourism purposes?)

That said, most agreed that there are a few vacuums in Napa, and just about everyone agreed on one in particular:

Michael Gyetvan, Azzurro/Norman Rose: “An Asian restaurant, one with a broad spectrum of flavors, maybe like Betelnut [in San Francisco].”

Nickie Zeller, Pearl: “Asian, even a Pacific Rim style with food from different countries. Or really good Chinese. We have some good Thai restaurants but they are very small … And a really good deli. It could be New York-style Jewish, but any all-around deli would be nice.

Clint Davies, Fish Story: “More ethnic food. A good pho place would be really nice. Just traditional Vietnamese, not Americanized.”

Jeffrey Jake, Silverado — and also a Napa native: “If I knew the answer to that question, I’d open it [laughing] … You know, I miss Ubuntu. I think a great vegetarian restaurant is missing from this town. If I had to pick something, it’d be that.”